Licensing Basics
How to Credit the Songwriter of a Licensed Song
By the Starchild Music team · October 7, 2026 · 6 min read
The short answer
Credit the songwriters in the songwriter or composer fields when you distribute, using their names exactly as they appear on your license, and list yourself as the performing artist. Repeat the same 'Written by' credit in your liner notes, video descriptions and press. You don't need a new split sheet for a licensed song, because the writers have already set their shares; split sheets matter when you co-write something new.
When you release a song someone else wrote, the credit is how their work stays attached to it. It's also how royalty systems find the right people. A misspelled name or an empty songwriter field can send money to the wrong place or nowhere at all.
Crediting well takes about ten minutes once you understand the two kinds of credit on every release. Here's how to do it on your distributor, on streaming services, and everywhere else your song shows up.
Two kinds of credit: the song and the recording
The U.S. Copyright Office treats a musical composition and a sound recording as two separate works. The authors of the composition are its composers, lyricists and songwriters. The authors of a sound recording are the performers, producers and engineers who made it.
That maps neatly onto a licensed song. The writers are credited for the composition, exactly as they appear on your license. You, your producer, your mix engineer and any session players are credited for the recording. Both sets of credits belong on the release, and neither replaces the other.
Most distributors give you separate places for each. Songwriter or composer fields hold the writers. Contributor or performer fields hold the people who made your recording, such as the producer, mixing engineer and featured vocalists. Filling both in properly means everyone shows up in the right role.
Where the songwriter credit goes
The credit should follow your song everywhere it appears, and the distributor fields matter most because streaming services read from them. Spotify says it displays all credits from the metadata your label or distributor sends, from producers and engineers to songwriters and featured artists. It also makes songwriter credits clickable when the writer has a Songwriter Page and a connected Written By playlist, a feature Spotify describes as still in beta. A correct credit is how a listener who loves your version finds the person who wrote it. Here's the full list of places to cover:
- Your distributor's songwriter or composer fields. This is the most important one, because it feeds the streaming services.
- Spotify, Apple Music and other services, which display credits from the metadata your distributor sends.
- Liner notes, Bandcamp pages, and any physical packaging, as 'Written by' followed by the writers' names.
- YouTube and social video descriptions, especially for music videos and lyric videos.
- Press releases, one-sheets and interviews when you talk about the song.
Copy the names exactly
Use the writer names exactly as they appear on your license, including middle initials and the order they're listed in. Royalty systems match records by name and ID numbers, and a small spelling difference can break that match.
On Starchild, licensed downloads carry the writer and license information, and your license certificate lists the song details in one place. Keep it open while you fill out your distributor form so you can copy names instead of typing them from memory.
CD Baby's distribution guide asks for the names of the songwriters for each track, including songs you didn't write, plus the names of their publishers if they have them, and each writer's ownership percentage. If your license lists a publisher, enter it. If it doesn't, follow your distributor's instructions for self-published writers.
After release, look your song up on two or three services and read the credits back against your license. It takes five minutes and catches typos while they're still easy to fix.
Do you need a split sheet?
A split sheet is a short written agreement among co-writers saying what percentage of a song each one owns. ASCAP encourages co-writers to agree on splits at the point of creation, ideally in writing, adding up to exactly 100 percent, and to register their works accurately with their PRO.
For a song you licensed, the writers have already settled that among themselves. Your job is to copy their information correctly. You'd only need a new split conversation if you actually changed the composition with the writers' permission and they agreed to share writing credit with you. That's rare, and it has to be agreed in writing with them first.
On the recording side, you may want a simple written agreement with your producer about credit and any share of master income. SoundExchange, which pays digital performance royalties to featured artists and sound recording owners, even offers a Letter of Direction program that lets artists redirect part of their royalties to producers, mixers or engineers.
Mistakes to avoid
- Listing yourself as a writer because you performed, arranged or produced the song. Performing and arranging are recording credits.
- Leaving the songwriter field blank, or entering 'Unknown' or 'Traditional'.
- Dropping a co-writer because the name is long or unfamiliar.
- Using a different spelling on Spotify, YouTube and your Bandcamp page.
- Entering the writers' stage names when your license lists their legal names, or the reverse.
- Putting a writer's name in the main artist field, which makes the song appear on their artist profile.
- Forgetting the credit on remixes, acoustic versions and live recordings of the same song. Each new version of the song still has the same writers.
How to fix a credit that went out wrong
Spotify says you can't edit credits directly in Spotify for Artists. You contact your distributor and ask them to resend the track's metadata with the correct credits, and updates usually appear within seven days. Most other services work the same way, so a single corrected delivery from your distributor usually fixes them together.
Writers' registrations with their PRO are separate, and ASCAP notes that changes which remove or reduce another party's share may require signed correspondence from that party. That's the writers' paperwork, which is one more reason to keep your side clean and consistent from day one.
If you're crediting a song as part of a bigger deal with several rights holders, a music attorney can help you get the paperwork right.